


A Song Direwolves and Dragons

by Eadapel



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Jon Snow is a Stark, No Incest, but Rhaegar is not his father, his mother is still Lyanna
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 09:45:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17465159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eadapel/pseuds/Eadapel
Summary: Jon Stark, Westeros' best and only expert on Direwolves moves south to study Zoology at King's landing University, where he meets Daenerys Targaryen, who is beautiful, witty and doesn't think he's insane for calling a horse sized wolf his best friend.Meanwhile, Lyanna, Jon's single mother works as a vet on the other side of the city. Happy to have her son back near her again, Lyanna's spirits rise even higher when she meets Rhaegar, a kindred spirit in her love for all things with 4 legs or wings.Chapter 1“Couldn’t we raise them?”...“Ah fuck it. If nothing else, the look on Ned’s face will be to die for.”





	A Song Direwolves and Dragons

One arm lolling out of the window, and the other tapping out a rhythm on the steering wheel, Jon whistled along to the radio as he sped down the Kingsroad towards King’s Landing. He had, by some miracle, been accepted into one of the most prestigious Universities in all of Westeros. He had applied to several Uni’s, most of them located in the North where he had grown up, Wintertown University had been his intended top pick, with the University of White Harbour and Barrowton University being his two back up options. In the interests of ‘broadening his horizons’, he had also applied to Eyrie College, where his Uncle Ned had studied and had put in an application to King’s Landing University on a lark, egged on by his cousin’s confidence in him.

His shock when the acceptance letter from KLU had dropped through the door of the house he shared with his family was, apparently, greatly amusing. Arya had managed to snap several photos of him, mouth open and eyes wide before he had recovered himself. After that, there had been an incredibly brief discussion with his mother on the phone (“I’ve been accepted into KLU” “You better bloody accept it!”), before he had written back and accepted the place. The only snag in the plan had been Ghost.

***

_Jon had been working as an apprentice ranger with his Uncle Brandon in the Wolfswood National Park when they had come across a dead direwolf. The she-wolf had given birth a little of six pups just hours before but had died not long after, succumbing to old wounds._

_“Looks like she got into a fight with a stag,” Brandon had said, pointing to the ugly, half-healed puncture wound on her flank, “lasted just long enough to bring the pups into the world. A sad end for such a great beast.”_

_“What will we do with the pups?” While he had come to accept that the job of a ranger was to prevent other humans from interfering with the wildlife, something about leaving the pups, not even a day old, to die did not sit right with him. Brandon, it appeared, agreed with him, staring at the pups, a thoughtful look in his grey eyes._

_“Direwolves are known to adopt orphaned cubs, but never those from outside the pack, and we don’t know who these guys belong to, and the pack probably wouldn’t recognise them if they did.”_

_“Couldn’t we raise them?” Brandon turned and raised an eyebrow at this, “you know, like people do with deer and seals and stuff?”_

_“Deer and seals are not protected species Jon,” his Uncle had replied, but there was a glint in his eye as he said it._

_“Oh, come on, if anyone could get away with it, it would be you and Uncle Benjen. Besides, it's not like we don’t have the room.” Those were both true, the Stark family had been rangers in the Wolfswood for generations and generations, dating back to the time when they served the Kings in the North as the forest’s stewards. Now, with the nobility mostly gone, a Stark of many years passed had somehow managed to get a hold of the castle of Winterfell, a medieval construction with large grounds. By opening the grounds and castle itself to the National Trust, the family had been allowed live in a small annexe and continue to manage the Wolfswood as they had done for centuries._

_The glint in his Uncle’s eye had turned from a slight glint to the full-on mischievous spark that he was famous for. Slinging an arm around Jon, Brandon looked back to the squirming mass of fur before them._

_“Ah fuck it. If nothing else, the look on Ned’s face will be to die for.”_

_And it had been, the way horror, surprise and weary resignation had crossed his Uncle’s face when they had thrown open the doors of the land rover to reveal six direwolf pups, still covered in the slime of birth, had been one of the best things Jon had ever seen._

***

Predictably, the Trust had caved quickly when Ned had requested that they be allowed to raise the pups. Nowhere in Westeros had ever kept direwolves in captivity, but in the Wolfswood, the Stark’s word was gospel, if they said they could raise the pups, then they could raise the pups.

Thus, Jon had become “most favouritist person in the world ever!” three times that evening when he had introduced his cousins to the pups, despite Aunt Catelyn’s complaints that they were wild animals.

After that, Jon had dropped most of his duties as a ranger, not that he that many to begin with, being a 16-year-old on work experience, to look after the pups full time. He had done so for three years and had developed books and books of notes on everything direwolf, to the point that, if he were to be so bold, he knew more about them than anyone else in the Trust, and probably the world.

One of his earliest discoveries had been the most troublesome. It turns out that when direwolves were first fed, they imprinted themselves on whoever was feeding them. Normally, this was their mother, and it wasn’t an issue, but Jon had faced with the pleading faces of Arya, Bran and Rickon, and Robb and Sansa’s hopeful looks, he helped each of his cousins nurse a pup each, while he fed the sixth. While watching the furballs prance around after the kids had been fun and adorable for a week or so, it quickly became apparent that separating them was impossible, and any attempt at doing so was met with barks, growls and teeth. They had given up when Uncle Ben had to be sent to the hospital after Nymeria, Arya’s grey pup had almost taken a chunk out of him.  
Eventually, Jon worked out that the pups were content, if not pleased, to be left with him while his cousins went to school, and so Jon had dropped out of college without attending a single day, and taken a job with the Wolfswood trust, looking after the new members of the family.

Now though, the pups had become wolves and were happy to be let loose into the Wolfswood on their own, though they always kept close to Winterfell, and seemed to return whenever their partner did, as if drawn by some invisible bond.  
With this sorted, Jon now hoped to complete his education, going to University to study zoo and animal management. He had not really expected to get in, his GCSE scores were mostly average, and he had never taken A-Levels, but apparently ‘three years’ experience rearing direwolves from birth’ was enough to have universities drooling, and he had fiver offers back within two weeks.

Having chosen to go to KLU, the next step was to find some way to take Ghost, the albino direwolf that Jon had adopted, with him. While it was easy to find somewhere to keep a dog, and maybe at a stretch a domesticated half-wolf, nobody seemed to have accommodation for a direwolf the size of a small horse that hadn’t even finished growing yet. Funny that.

In the end, Uncle Ned had made some calls, and the National Trust team in charge of the Kingswood had reluctantly agreed to allow close off an area of the park provided Ghost kept away from people and did not disrupt the local ecosystem.  
And so that was how Jon found himself tearing down the Kingsroad, with adolescent direwolf kept securely in a horse box behind him, ignoring the looks he was getting from other drivers after they noticed the horse sized wolf with white fur and red eyes, wondering what he would have thought if he had told himself four years ago this was what he would end up doing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading guys! For anyone wondering about my other story, the Star of Winterfell, I do have plans to continue it when I can, but I'm not happy with the way things are currently, and I feel like I'll end up re-writing the first three chapters at some point. But back to this story.
> 
> I had the idea that single mum Lyanna meets Rhaegar (not Jon's dad), while Jon gets to know Daenerys, both completely independent of each other, and so I started writing this. Modern setting, but with Westeros places, and adjusted traditions, including direwolves and dragons, because direwolves and dragons are awesome, and make any story better.
> 
> I'll explain more about the family Stark and Jon's place in it in the next chapter, which will be a Lyanna PoV.


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